CT Day 19: Magic Miles

The forest is half alive this morning instead of half dead. The trail is finally cruiser. And mostly downhill. Amazing what a good night’s sleep and morning sunshine can do to banish zombie-moods.

I continue along the last stretch of ridge, and then the single-track becomes dirt road for almost the entire day. Unlike the many small ups and downs that actually added up to serious elevation change yesterday, today truly has little elevation gain and loss, at least for mountain hiking. Just before noon, two hikers going the other direction tell me there’s trail magic in seven miles. Trail Magic! I plug in and march on, challenging myself not to stop until I get there. Over gentle hills, across stinking creeks thick with cow poop, along ranch roads all the way. Just as the day is really heating up, I come across a cow skull with sharpie announcing: “Trail Magic 1.2 miles.” I realize that this also marks my first 20 by 2 (twenty miles before 2pm) of the trail. Woot!

And 1.2 miles later, under a tall tree in the middle of the driest, sunniest stretch of trail, a truck and a tent. It’s Trail Angel Apple with a cooler full of iced-cold Gatorade on this hot, dry stretch. And he has fresh water too for hikers to swap out their cow-piss creek sludge. The ‘water’ that was covered in enough flies to make anyone who thought it was simply ‘muddy’ reconsider.

After a two hour break, Steph, who has caught up as she does, and I head out into, yes, another round of thunderstorms. Though we miss the worst of the rain, I am majorly spooked by a stretch of walking in a wide open field under thunderclouds. And even if lightening is striking a mile away, that is still waaay too close for my scared heart.

But we pass through without getting zapped, and celebrate by heading for our stretch goal – the creek and a 30 mile day. But the steady drizzle makes exposed campsites look unappealing, and the tease of sunshine up the valley lures us on. But everything else seems even worse. Too rocky. Too grassy. Too knee deep in cow pies (not exaggerating). Too far from the water. And that, is how you end up with a 32 mile day. Camped just shy of the ford (too wet!), feet tingling with the effort, but no worse for the wear.